By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya
Burgher Hottie’s is a lockdown-inspired product that came about as a result of Sandra Mack’s wish to perfect a lava-hot kochchi sauce. It soon turned into a home-based business. The range of sauces offered by Burgher Hottie’s not only look good but also add a much-needed bite to any meal.
Speaking to Brunch, Mack said she loves the variety of colourful kochchi chillies that are available. “I started with the Rice Pullerz Premium Kochchi Sauce in single, double, and triple layers. This is my signature sauce. Today, Burgher Hottie’s offers a full range of vegetarian-friendly lava-hot Rice Pullerz that are probably the hottest flavourful sauces in town,” she said.
Mack is a vegetarian and finds that her options are limited when it comes to choosing spicy dishes at restaurants. She shared that vegetarian dishes tend to be bland, and that it was rarely that she would come across really spicy vegetarian food. “I think most chefs spice up meat and fish curries/dishes but keep the vegetable dishes bland. Often I end up asking for a hot sauce that is available to add flavour to my meal when I eat out,” Mack said.
This is what led her to experiment with sauces during lockdown.
This experimentation has resulted in a wide range of hot sauces, including the Rice Pullerz lava-hot kochchi sauces, Rice Pullerz lava-hot preservatives and pickles, butters and spreads made using nuts, and seeds and the no-sugar jamming range of jams, sweet sauces and toppings.
The signature item is the premium single, double, and triple layer chilli sauces, that have no added preservatives or colours.
“I believe Burgher Hottie’s is the first layered kochchi sauce introduced in this country… or maybe in the world,” Mack said, adding that the Rice Pullerz hot sauces came in flavours like kochchi, pineapple kochchi, peanut kochchillie, garlikochchi, mangochchi, as well as Portuguese Peri Peri. Other products include three types of chillies in olive oil, mango sweet and sour bites, and ambarella sweet and sour bites.
Burgher Hottie’s also offers a nutty mushroom dip or sauce, 100% raw Sri Lankan bee’s honey, and cinnamon sugar sprinkle. The nut butters include cashew butter original, cashew butter mocha, sesame butter, coconut butter, peanut butter, peanut butter chocolate, and almond butter.
Their no-sugar pineapple, mango, and strawberry jams are made using fresh fruits and no sugar. “The jam is without preservatives or artificial colours. So, the jams have a shorter shelf life with long-term health benefits,” she explained.
Mack went on to say that healthy eating is important, but added that everything should be in moderation. “Sri Lanka is blessed with such a variety of fruit. I hope we can make more innovative products from fresh produce in a large-scale, organised way. When in season, instead of letting ripe fruit go bad and then throwing it, it would be wonderful if we could make innovative by-products in different forms,” she said, mentioning by-products such as jams, pickles, dehydrated fruit pieces, tinned fruit, juices, energy bars, and fruit toppings.
“As for the jams I make, my challenge is to make sure I use sweet ripe fruits to ensure that the jams have more natural sweetness,” Mack added.
Despite offering a wide range of products, Mack is the entire team behind the brand. “I am a foodie. A vegetarian. I try to be health-conscious on most days. I love junk food too but not all the time. So the recipes I experiment with are biassed towards what I like to eat,” she said, adding that she does all the work from ideating to making the product to designing the packaging and the bottling too.
However, this will change as the business expands as she will be compelled to hire help. “I ask people I know to try the product at the product testing stage. So far, the feedback has been positive,” Mack went on to say.
When asked how she came up with the name for the brand, Sandra Mack explained that she is Sinhalese-Dutch Burgher. “Most of my life, I have been teased about my Burgher roots – my name, the way I look and, even though I speak perfect Sinhala, I still get teased about it. I never took offence. I still don’t,” she said.
Instead, Mack found it rather interesting and says it made her feel special. “So when I had to come up with a brand name, I wanted to project my personality or my identity onto the brand and decided it had to be Burgher Hottie’s,” she explained.
In terms of building a brand and expanding a business, Mack says one of the main challenges will always be convincing a potential consumer to make that first purchase in order to get them to try the product.
Fortunately, she has not yet faced an issue when sourcing fresh ingredients for her products. “There’s always fresh produce available somewhere in Colombo. I just have to look around. I like sourcing from various places,” she said.
Burgher Hottie’s products can be purchased directly from Sandra Mack via social media. The brand is present on Facebook and Instagram as Burgher Hottie’s.
